Humility

I had my Arabic post test today. I also prayed for humility last night.

The speaking portion went well; the conversation was just about me, my family, our history, why I was in Jordan, what I thought of the country, why I was learning Arabic, and what I wanted to do with my life. So, basically it was just the conversation that we always have with cab drivers. The teacher was impressed, however, and left me with the usual comment “Oh, you are so wonderful. You’re a Level 5 student, not level 1.” Then I went outside to hear all the UJ students…..and, of course, didn’t understand more than 1 word in 100.

That afternoon came the written portion of the test. I entered the classroom early, and there were already 1 or 2 students there. The professor handed me the exam and I started to work on the grammar section.

The exam might as well have been written in Urdu. I struggled to pronounce the words to myself, recognizing random words that I had seen on buildings: “Establishment,” “Center,” “Trade.” I persevered, trying to answer the questions, but knowing I couldn’t be getting more than 1 in 10 correct….I could only translate about half the words in any given sentence, let alone answer questions about grammar and how they should be used in the sentence! I started to sweat it. I had studied for 17 weeks, and could barely do the entrance exam the program gives to all its students? I was rather discouraged.

Then came the listening section. Although I could understand the general idea of the first selection and could understand the second selection fairly well, the questions made no sense and again, I could only get a vague, general idea based upon a few words from the questions. I sweated and struggled, and saw my classmates working at a decent pace. How were they understanding this?! I looked at the questions – they didn’t even match the reading section at all! How could I answer them if the readings didn’t match? I looked at the student behind me, who was from my class. We compared exams. I breathed a sigh of relief – I had the wrong exam.

I went to the professor and got it corrected, happily started on the appropriate exam. The one I had started with was for the advanced language students that come to the program and are only allowed to speak in Arabic for the semester. I felt much better. However, it was still so humbling to see how far there is to go before actually being able to say anything useful or to understand in any real sense. Goodness sake, I can’t even watch Spongebob Squarepants and understand the plot!

I finished the exam and went outside, where again the students around me spoke rapidly in a language I did not know.

Momtaaz.

Edit: I did get the results of the test back today, placing me with students who had just finished intermediate 2. It still doesn’t mean I can understand anything, though.